Native Seedssouthwestern Endangered
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 942899356
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- Tucson, AZ, USA
- Phone
- 5206220830
- Rating
- 80
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Natural Resources Conservation and Protection
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,251,272
- Expenses
- $1,678,775
- Assets
- $2,718,249
- Liabilities
- $119,088
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
16 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- ALEXANDRA ZAMECNIK (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR THRU FEB.)
- RAQUEL AVILES (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AS OF FEB.)
Highest reported compensation
- ALEXANDRA ZAMECNIK (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR THRU FEB.): $99,279 total reported compensation
- GLENN WAGNER (FINANCE & OPERATIONS MANAGER): $57,262 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Native seeds/search conserves and shares the seeds of the people of the desert southwest and mexico so that these arid-adapted crops may benefit communities and nourish a changing world.
What it reported doing in 2024
Education and outreach: our education work is focused on providing resources and support to gardeners and farmers from the southwest, especially in indigenous communities that have connections to the seeds we steward. We give presentations, resources and training on seed saving and also host visits and tours of the conservation center, including the garden, seedlab and seedbank. In 2025, we hosted and presented at 20 workshops on gardening and seedsaving, provided 23 tours and visits at the conservation center, visited several farms and community gardens to provide technical consultation and programmatic support, tabled at 16 events to represent ns/s and presented at 23 conferences and/or meetings.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 82% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 68
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 91
- Sustainability: 66
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 74.4%; rating input score 74
- Program expense ratio: 74.2%; rating input score 74
- Fundraising efficiency: $6.51 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 10th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 25.4%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.62; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 9.3%; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 4.7% per year; rating input score 100; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.2% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 2% per year; rating input score 100; 19th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 74.4% of revenue deployed · 74.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $1.2M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $99K · 16 people listed
- Consistency: 30 of 31 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 24/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 9 not reported.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 54/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 32/100.